In the 1950s, the piano of João Donato, who died on Monday at the age of 88, was already unique. In his childhood, in Acre, where he was born, he learned to play the accordion and, when he participated in the genesis of bossa nova, he already had his own way of hitting the keys, a style that he never stopped developing over the years.
Passionate about melodies and beautiful chords, Donato was one of the inventors of bossa nova, but he never got stuck with it. He wasn't an exhibitionist of intricate melodies, but he made the piano swing like no one else, with a delicate, subtle, and irresistible groove. He was a wizard who had the power to control time at his fingertips.
In a career spanning over six decades, he created the groove that inspired João Gilberto to establish the bossa nova beat and never stopped since. His aesthetic fundamentally cuts across jazz but incorporates influences from baião, Latin music, Ame rican funk, psychedelic rock, admiration of nature, and camaraderie.
Translated by Cassy Dias